Old, New and Old

Last week my wife and I were camping in the woods of North Central Wisconsin.  While there we met up with some family were fortunate to hike part of a unique wooded area in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The UP hike was suggested by my brother Joe.  Most all of the forests in the upper Midwest were clear cut in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  As reported by the Wisconsin College of Agriculture and Life Sciences "most big trees had been cut down by the 1930's." We are now, in many areas, a hundred or more years distant of the logging that clear-cut much of the upper Midwest.  However, work by the hand of man, and the hand of nature old-growth forest habitat is starting to once again reappear. 

If one thing is clear about old-growth forests it is the many varied thoughts on what actually constitutes an old-growth forest.  Doing some searches I was surprised to find little consensus on the meaning of old-growth forest.  That is probably due to variability.  What is known, is that an old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest is different from that in the Midwest, and even within the Midwest an Ash forest may be mature at about 40 years, but a Sugar Maple forest would still be rather young.  Some traits of an old-growth forest seem consistent.  After a decade of study of about 50 forest areas, a University of Wisconsin group determined two main elements to old-growth forests: "the size and distribution of gaps in the forest canopy and coarse woody debris-sizable logs-on the forest floor."    Gaps in the canopy are caused when a tree falls creating an opening in the overall canopy,a nd the large wood debris that would lay on the forest floor.  This provides for the addition of more light into the forest floor that enhances growth of young vegetation and lower growing plants.

As the Amazon burns those of us in the developed world wonder about the loss of the old-growth forest.  Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris cannot be built back to what it originally was due to France, and Europe, lacking the large timbers for roof framing.  But, the importance of old-growth forests is more than the size and breadth of the the trees.  Importance also lies in its biodiversity in a world seemingly bent on mono-culture.   But benefits go well beyond the diversity of flora and fauna.  Such downed logs allow the fungi and mosses to grow and multiply.  Forest cover also assists in breaking down some  air pollutants, it provides quality to soils, through the decay of the debris layer, which also works to improve water infiltration and filtration.

In some respects, nature can be very resilient, but I suspect there are limits.  Perhaps like a person, nature can be pushed too far and there is likely a point of no return.  The University of Wisconsin is working on recreating an old growth forest in part of the Flambeau River State Forest.  The UW had loggers cut trees only to let them then reside of the forest floor. I suppose it was difficult for a logger, and most anybody, to see good trees being laid on the forest floor.  The UP, the site we visited is seemingly on its way to a more natural recreation of an old-growth forest with little human intervention.

The land we walked in the UP had been part of the Ottawa National Forest, but, showing the oddities of government, the US Forest Service, upon request in 2009 by a private land owner, traded for this parcel and some other land and in exchange the Forest Service received land from that owner that had just been logged.  The Northwoods Alliance, of which my brother Joe is a director, was unsuccessful in fighting the swap, but their perseverance paid off in that the new owner has provided the opportunity for the Alliance to to purchase that property.  As my brother says, being tenacious opened up opportunities.  It is hard to believe the Forest Service would allow such land to move out of the public trust into private hands.  The Northwoods Alliance now faces the hard part-- obtain the necessary funds for the project and then turn it into a community forest.

Hikers to WIldcat Falls on a cloudy, cool summer day in the UP

This parcel, however, is more than a forest in transition to old-growth, it also contains a water fall, known as Wildcat Falls, and rock formations which one geologist said appear to be pre-cambrian rock, which in some situations may be covered with some glaciated sediment rock.   The waterfall sits among a jumble of large rocks seemingly randomly strewn about by the hand of God or the forces of nature.  While the falls sits on Scott and Howe Creek, it appears almost out of nowhere, as above the falls is not only a small stream, but the water to the falls is also fed by groundwater channeled among the layers of bedrock and the soft soil layer that moves to the touch created through the years by the detritus of the forest.

Forests, however, are having a hard time regenerating due to the prevalence of certain animals, particularly deer.  There is also invasive species of earthworms and now jumping worms, to name but two.  When the ecosystem is upset the circle of regeneration is significantly affected.  My brother and his wife own a some large acreage on a lake in Northern Wisconsin, and few birch trees grow due to deer eating the young saplings.  With so many deer landowners are turning to exclosures to keep the deer out, but such fencing is expensive.  Few pines even find the ability to regenerate.  That makes success stories like the area around Wildcat Falls all the more important.

The waterfall and rock formations within the larger context of a developing old-growth forest certainly adds to the diversity and richness of the landscape. Hidden gems in a broader local and regional landscape covered with trees and lakes. Yes, the signs of an emerging or now young old-growth forest are present--the hummocks of downed trees home to wildlife and wildflowers, the hanging trees that fell in a storm no longer to reach their height, but instead rotting to provide another chapter in the life of the forest. Old-growth forests are coming back into existence after 100 or more years after clear cutting.  This shows resilience of nature in a time when the landscape was pushed to the limits.

For more on the Northwoods Alliance Wildcat Falls project, readers can see this website.

Sources:
 https://grow.cals.wisc.edu/deprecated/environment/the-new-old-forest

 http://www.partnersinforestry.com/Documents/Wildcat%20Falls%20Community%20Forest%20Concept%2004-2018.pdf

 Photos by author on Wildcat Falls hike, August 22, 2019